Apparatus for weaving pile fabrics



p 1957 'r. 1'. JANNEY-ETAL 2,807,283

APPARATUS FOR WEAVING PILE FABRICS Filed March 23, 1954 4 Sheet s-Sheet l 5 i M fi y /6 H Mimi-1 J7 /5 o l I O 0 if Sept. 24, 1957 Filed March 23, 1954 T. T. JANNE Y ETAL APPARATUS FOR 'WEAVING FILE FABRICS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 A TTORNE Y3 Sept. 24, 1957 1'. 1'. .IANNEY ETAL APPARATUS FOR WEAVING PILE FABRICS Filed March 25, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VENT 0K 5 77/0/7195 7'. Je f/7f) #19) P700 5. PHTTE FJ'M P 1957 'r. 'r. JANNEY EI'AL 2,807,283

APPARATUS FOR WEAVING PILE FABRICS Filed March 23, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVE N TORS THU 765 7. JfiH/VE) 8/ mama/10 8. 3977542700 A TTORNE VJ APPARATUS FOR WEAVING PILE FABRICS Thomas T. Janney, Lafayette Hill, Pa., and Raymond B. Patterson, Glasgow, Va., assignors to James Lees and Sons Company, Bridgeport, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 23, 1954, Serial No. 418,010

Claims. (Cl. 139-59) the positions of the pile warps during the insertion of each weft yarn. The present invention affords a substantial reduction in the number of cards required by employing only one jacquard card for each pile wire insertion in a two-shot fabric. The present invention may be applied to a standard Wilton loom without substantial modification of the warp and weft manipulating meansand produces by proper selection of the cards a wide variety of pile weaves.

The construction and operation of the present invention and further advantages derived therefrom are more fully set forth hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a jacquard mechanism made in accordance with the present invention showing the operating connections with the pile wire loom;

Figs. 2 to 6 inclusive show various pile weaves which may be obtained by the arrangement shown in Fig. 1;

Figs. 7 to 10 inclusive show the sequence of operations to weave the fabric illustrated in Fig. 6;

Figs. 7a to 10a show diagrammatically the sheds formed by the operations shown in Figs. 7 to 10 respectively;

Fig. 11 illustrates schematically an improved fabric woven by an apparatus of the present invention;

Fig. 12 is a typical warpwise sectionalview of the fabric disclosed in Fig. 11;

Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic representation corresponding to Fig. 12 prior to the removal of the wires from the fabric; and,

Fig. 14 is a typical weftwise section of the fabric *shownin Fig. 11.

The jacquard of the present invention is a three-position jacquard wherein two lash hooks are employed to control a single heddle. Each lash hook is controlled by a needle which in turn is controlled by the presence or absence of an aperture in the card positioned on the conventional card cylinder. One of each pair. of hooks controlling a heddle is positioned to cooperate with a stationary knife mounted at a station corresponding to the middle or neutral level of the pile warps in the shed. The other hook is positioned to engage a movable knife which is actuated between an upper station corresponding to the upper level of the pile warps in the shed and nited States Patent :0

.ing to the lower level. .cylinder is retracted and a new card is positionedin con- Patented Sept. 24, 1957 shed. The movable knives and the hook grate are elevated to their upper stations and the lower weft yarn and pile wire are inserted within the shed below and above the middle level respectively.

During the actuation of the movable knives and the hook grate, the card cylinder is engaged against the needles to select the lash hooks which are to be engaged upon the movable and stationary knives. The hooks selected for engagement with the movable knives are elevated to the upper level and the remaining hooks are elevated to the intermediate level. The movable knives and the hook grate are then dropped to their lower stations and the hooks selected for engagement with'the stationary knives are retained in the middle level upon descent of the hook grate, the remaining hooks descend- During this movement, the card fronting relation to the needles.

Referring now to the drawings, the jacquard mechanism illustrated in Fig. 1 comprises a frame 11 having a first set of knives 12 fixedly mounted on the frame and a second set of knives 13 mounted for vertical reciprocation on lifting arms 14 positioned at the opposite sides of the jacquard frame 1 A card cylinder 16 is mounted in the usual manner for horizontal reciprocation as indicated at 17, each reciprocation effecting rotary movement of the cylinder so as to advance the card chain 18 and position a new card in confronting relation to the needles 19. A hook grate 21 is mounted below the bank of needles 19 for vertical reciprocation; for example by means indicated at 22.

The cylinder 16, the movable knives 13, and the hook grate 21 are actuated by driving connections from the main shaft 23 of the loom. To this end, the shaft 23 is geared to a cam shaft 24 which carries a cam 25 for .reciprocating the cylinder 16 between the back position shown in Fig. 1 and a forward position in which it engages the needles. Mounted on the same shaft 24 is a cam- 26 for actuating both the movable knives 14 and the hook grate 21. The connections are such that the movable knives 13 are actuated between stations corresponding to the upper and lower levels in the warp shed. As shown in Fig. 1, the hook grate 21 and the knives 13 are in their lower stationsat the same time as the cylinder 16 is in its back position. The knives 13 and the hook grate 21 are actuated to the upper stations simultaneously with the actuation of the cylinder 16 to its forward or needle-engaging position. Thus, for each revolution of the cam shaft 2 the cylinder 16 is actuated to its forward position and then to its back position, and the hook grate and movable knives are actuated to their upper stations and then back to their lower stations. In accordance with the invention, an upper weft shot is inserted in the shed when the elements are at the lower upper stations, a lower weft shot and a wire are inserted respectively in the lower and upper portions of the shed formed by the warps.

Fig. 7 illustrates the position of the needles 19 at a point in the operation corresponding to the position shown in Fig. 1, after a blank card 36 (one with no holes punched in it) has been shifted out of confronting relation to the needles. As shown in Fig. 7, each needle of the bank 19 controls a single lash book of the series of lash books .29; for example, the needle 19a controls the lash hook 29a; the needle 19b controls the hook 29b, etc. Two adjacent lash hooks control a single heddle of the set 31, for example, the lash hooks 29a and 29b control the heddle 31a, the books 290 and 29d control the heddle 31c and the hooks 29c and 29f control the heddle 31e.

-Since the card 36 is blank, all of the needles were displaced to disengage the complete set of hooks 29 from the knives 12 and 13. Thus, all the heddles 31 are at their lower level as determined by the hook grate 21. All of the warps controlled by the heddles 31 will there fore be in the lower level, as shown schematically in Fig. 7a. When the heddles are in this position, an upper weft shot 32 is inserted in the shed which is subsequently beat up into the fell 33 of the fabric by a reed 34 in accordance with the conventional weaving practice. During the beat-up, the cam shaft 24 rotates 180 degrees to advance the cylinder '16 into engagement with the bank of needles 19.

The card 37 now positioned in confronting relation to the needles, has holes punched to register with the needles 1911, 19c, 19d, and 191. The presence of the .hole in registry with the needle eifects selection of the corresponding lash hook for engagement with one of the knives 12 and 13. -In this respect, it is noted that alternate hooks are positioned to engage the movable knives 13 whereas the intermediate hooks are positioned to engage the fixed knives 12. As shown in Fig. 8, the hooks 29a and 29c are engaged upon the knives 13 and the hooks 29d and 291 are engaged upon the knives 12. The heddles 31a and 310 are therefore at their upper level as determined by the position of the knives 13, and the heddle 312 is at the intermediate level as determined by the position of the hook grate 21. Thus, a shed is formed wherein the warps 41 and 42 in the heddles 31a and 310 respectively, are at the upper level and the warp 43 in the heddles 31a is at the intermediate level (see Fig. 8a). The lower weft shot 44 and the wire 45 are then inserted in the shed respectively below and above the warp 43. The reed 34 then beats up these elements into the fell 33 of the cloth as the cam shaft 24 is rotated another 180 degrees.

Rotation of the cam shaft retracts the cylinder 16 which rotates to advance the card chain 18 to present a new card 38 to the bank of needles 19. At the same time, the knives 13 and hook grate 21 are dropped to their lower stations, carrying all the hooks except the hooks 29d and 299 with them. The latter hooks are retained at the intermediate level by their engagement with the fixed knives 12. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 9. Thus, a shed is formed in which the warps 42 and 43 are at the intermediate level and the warp 41 is at the lower level. An upper weft shot 46 is then inserted, and in a succeeding operation, is beat up into the fell 33 of the fabric.

During this operation, the cam shaft 24 is rotated to advance the cylinder 16 into engagement with the bank of needles 19. The card 38 has apertures registering with the needles 19b, 19c and 19e so that the upwardly moving knives 13 engage the hooks 29c and 29e to elevate the warps 42 and 43 to the upper level in the shed. The warp 41 is elevated to the intermediate level and a wire 47 and lower weft shot 48 are inserted and beat up in the usual manner. It is noted that the hook 291: is engaged with the knife 12 so that in the succeeding operation, the warp 41 is retained at the intermediate level while the remaining warps are dropped to the lower level. Thus, when the upper weft shot 49 is inserted, the warp 41 will be above it.

The fabric woven by this series of operations is clearly shown in Fig. 6. The chain warp 50 is manipulated independently of the pile warps 41, 42, and 43. The stutter warps 51 are controlled independently of the jacquard.

Fig. 2 illustrates a pile Weave made by apparatus of the invention wherein the pile yarn 52 is controlled in the same manner as the pile yarn 42 of the previously described embodiment. Thus, fora sequence of three cards, the hole controlling the needle which actuates the hook engageable with the fixed knife, is blanked in the first and third card and open in the second card. The hole for controlling the needle actuating the hook engageable with the movable knife open in the second and third cards.

The weave illustrated in Fig. 3 shows a pile yarn 53 floated over the second and third upper watts and under the wires. In the three cards for producing this weave, the hole for controlling the needle actuating the hook engageable with the fixed knife, is blanked in the first card and open in the second and third. The hole for controlling the needle actuating the hook engageable with the movable knife is blanked in the second and third cards.

In :Fig. 4, the weave is illustrated in having a pile yarn 52a controlled similarly to the pile yarn 52 of Fig. 2 and a pile yarn 54 which passes under every upper weft and over every wire. In the set in three cards for producing this weave, of the holes controlling the yarn 54, the holes controlling the needle actuating the hook engageable with the fixed knife are blanked, and the holes for actuating the needle controlling the hook engageable with the movable knife, are open.

In Fig. 5, a weave is illustrated in which the pile yarn passes over alternate pile wires and is tied under alternate upper wefts, passing under the intermediate wires and over the intermediate upper wefts. In the set of cards for producing this weave, the holes for controlling the needles actuating the hooks engageable with the fixed knives, are alternately blanked and open in successive cards and the holes for controlling the needles actuating the hooks engageable with the movable knives are alternately blanked and open in the successive cards.

Fig. 11 illustrates a fabric embodying the weave shown in Fig. 5. As seen in Fig. 11, the fabric comprises both looped and cut pile indicated respectively at 60 and 61. This fabric may be woven on a loom wherein the wires are arranged in a sequence alternating cutting and looping wires, i. e., wires with and without a knife on the trailing end. The fabric has a full complement of pile projections tied under each weft so that there is substantially no chance of grinning in the finished fabric. As seen in Fig. 13, the looped portion is formed by raising both the pile warps 62 and 63 over only the non-cutting wires 64 and floating them under the cutting wires 65. To weave the cut portion, both pile yarns are raised over the cutting wires 65 and are floated under non-cutting wires 64. To accomplish this, the card layout operator needs only to modify the sequence of holes for controlling the needle actuating the hook engageable with the movable knife for each pile warp, i. e., for the looped portion he must blank the alternate cards and punch the intermediate cards; for the tufted portion, he must punch the alternate cards and blank the intermediate cards.

The present invention therefore affords a simple expedient for producing many varied pile effects in a Wilton carpet fabric using a minimum number of cards for controlling the jacquard movement.

While a particular construction and a certain number of arrangements have been illustrated and described herein, it is not intended to limit the invention to such disclosures and changes and modifications may be made therein and thereto within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. For weaving a pile fabric comprising pile warps, chain warps, and weft shots, a pile wire loom having a plurality of heddles each carrying a warp and movable between lower, intermediate and upper levels to form a succession of sheds, a first lash hook mounted for vertical longitudinal movement and displaceable laterally from a normal position, means connecting one heddle to said lash hook for actuation by the latter, a first knife operable to engage said hook when the latter is in its normal position, means to move said knife between upper and lower stations concurrent with the formation of intermediate and alternate sheds respectively of said succession of sheds, said hook engageable with said knife during the upward movement of the latter to elevate the heddle and support it at its upper level, the lower station of said knife affording return of the heddle to its lower level, a second lash hook mounted for vertical longitudinal movement and displaceable laterally from a normal position, means connecting said one heddle to the second lash hook for actuation by the latter, a second knife fixed in position and operable to engage the second hook when the latter is in its normal position to support said heddle at its intermediate level, a hook grate movable between upper and lower stations and engageable with the first and second lash hooks in both their normal and their laterally displaced positions, means for moving said hook grate between said upper and lower stations in synchronism with the movement of said first knife between its upper and lower stations to afiord movement of the heddle between its intermediate and lower levels respectively, and needle means operatively engaged with said first and second lash hooks and operable to selectively displace the same laterally from their normal position and preclude engagement thereof with their associated knives, said heddle being controlled only by said hook grate when both lash hooks are displaced from their normal position.

2. For weaving a pile fabric comprising pile warps, chain warps, and weft shots, a pile wire loom having a plurality of heddles each carrying a warp and movable between lower, intermediate and upper levels to form a succession of sheds, a first lash hook mounted for vertical longitudinal movement and displaceable laterally from a normal position, flexible means connecting one heddle to said lash hook for actuation by the latter, a first knife operable to engage said hook when the later is in its normal position, means to move said knife between upper and lower stations concurrent with the formation of intermediate and alternate sheds respectively of said succession of sheds, said hook engageable with said knife during the upward movement of the latter to elevate the heddle and support it at its upper level, the lower station of said knife affording return of the heddle to its lower level, a second lash hook mounted for vertical longitudinal movement and displaceable laterally from a normal position, flexible means connecting said one heddle to the second lash hook for actuation by the latter, a second knife fixed in position and operable to engage the second hook when the latter is in'its normal position to support said heddle at its intermediate level, a hook grate movable between upper and lower stations and engageable with the first and second lash hooks in both their normal and their laterally displaced positions, means for moving said hook grate between said upper and lower stations in synchronism with the movement of said first knife between its upper and lower stations to afford movement of said first. knife between its upper and lower stations to afford movement of the heddle between its intermediate and lower levels respectively, and needle means operatively engaged with said first and second lash hooks and operable to selectively displace the same laterally from their normal positions and preclude engagement thereof with their associated knives, said heddle being controlled only by said hook grate when both lash hooks are displaced from their normal position.

3. For weaving a pile fabric comprising pile warps, chain warps, and weft shots, a pile wire loom having a drive shaft and a plurality of heddles each carrying a warp and movable between lower, intermediate and upper levels to form a succession of sheds, a first lash hook mounted for vertical longitudinal movement and displaceable laterally from a normal position, means connecting one heddle to said lash hook for actuation by the latter, a first knife operable to engage said hook when the latter is in its normal position, means operatively connected to said drive shaft to move said knife between upper and lower stations concurrent with the formation of intermediate and alternate sheds respectively of said succession of sheds, said hook engageable with said knife during the upward movement of the latter to elevate the heddle and support it at its upper level, the lower station of said knife affording return of the heddle frame to its lower level, a second lash hook mounted for vertical longitudinal movement and displaceable laterally from a normal position, means connecting said one heddle to the second lash hook for actuation by the latter, a second knife fixed in position and operable to engage the second hook when the latter is in its normal position to support said heddle at its intermediate level, a hook grate movable between upper and lower stations and engageable with the first and second lash hooks in both their normal and their laterally displaced positions, means operatively connected to said drive shaft for moving said hook grate between said upper and lower stations in synchronism with the movement of said first knife between its upper and lower stations to afford movement of the heddle between its intermediate and lower levels respectively, needle means operatively engaged with said first and second lash hooks and operable to selectively displace the same laterally from their normal positions and preclude engagement thereof with their associated knives, said heddle being controlled only by said hook grate when both lash hooks are displaced from their normal position, and a card and card cylinder driven by said drive shaft to selectively actuate said needle means in accordance with a predetermined pattern.

4. In a jacquard mechanism for a loom, a card cylinder, cards therefor, needles operatively engaging the cards, lash hooks operatively engaged by the needles and having upper knife hook ends and lower hook grate ends, a fixed knife engageable with the upper knife hook ends of alternate lash hooks, a movable knife engageable with the upper knife hook ends of the intermediate lash hooks, a plurality of heddles each being connected to a pair consisting of alternate and intermediate hooks, means to displace said movable knife between upper and lower stations, a hook grate engageable with the lower hook grate ends, and means to displace said hook grate between upper and lower stations concurrently with the displacement of said movable knife, the upper station of said hook grate being a lesser distance above the lower station than the upper station of said movable knife, said cards operable to select needles for engaging the lash hook knife ends with the respective knives, the lash hook selected for engagement with the movable knives raising the associated heddle to an upper level, the lash hook selected for engagement with the fixed knife holdiing the heddle at an elevated intermediate level when the movable knife and the hook grate are at their lower stations, and the remaining lash hooks affording displacement of the heddle to a lower level upon movement of the movable knife and hook grate to their lower stations.

5. In a jacquard mechanism for a loom, lash hooks having upper knife hook ends and lower hook grate ends, a fixed knife engageable with the upper knife hook ends of alternate lash hooks, a movable knife engageable with the upper knife hook ends of the, intermediate lash hooks,

sisting of alternate and intermediate hooks, means to displace said movable knife between upper and lower stations, a hook grate engageable with the lower hook grate ends, means to displace said hook grate between upper and lower stations concurrently with the corresponding displacement of said movable knife, the upper station of said 'hook grate 'being a lesser distance above the lower station than the upper station of said movable knife, and means operable to select and engage lash hook knife ends with the respective knives.

UNITED STATES PATENTS .Hunter 5 Mar. 18, 1930 Ulrich Sept. 27, 1938 Foster Nov. 7, 1939 Cosman Nov. 25,, 1941 Stoehr Sept. 15, 1942 Harding July .26, 1949 Groat Mar. 25, 1952 Harding Aug. 25, 1953 

